I resent being called stupid!
First of all, DownIn3Green, I resent being called stupid! I was the primary Flight Engineer in this mess. You want to meet me and say that to my face…pick a place and time! I see you post from Florida, I'm close enough to make that trip.
I have been a freelance crewmember in this game for a long time. I doubt many of you would demand a RT ticket in advance under the circumstances we were in. I did know exactly what I was getting into and the chances I was taking. We were to ferry the aircraft from the US to Africa directly into active service for the Hadj. There were a lot of delays out of GSO because of maintenance. The owners were there to insure the aircraft would not leave unless it was clean of all DMI's. It was we crewmembers pushing to get the show on the road, after all "time is money" and sitting in GSO was not getting me any OT. The primary captain and myself have over 17,000 hours on the L-1011. The primary FO I believe had over 2000.
As someone else mentioned, a RT ticket would have done us no good in Ouagadougou. Or Jeddah. B767Longhaul, I would like to know where you get your information? Which crewmembers have been paid in full? If this is true, there will be hell to pay in MIA!!!! I hope the company survives and pays us all what we are owed. I will fly for them again if I am paid. I, unlike DD's friend, consider this just business, not personal. At first I did not believe Northeast when they said they could not pay us what we were owed due to them getting screwed by the company which hired us. I was very pissed off and said some very harsh things about the company to other employees (as I'm sure many of you would have). Upon some investigative work into the situation, I have discovered some truth in what they have told us. And yes, it is true they are still responsible for that pay, but they just don't have it! What little they managed to dig up has been spent getting cabin crews home and trying to get their aircraft out of Burkina Faso. I can live with that if it results in me getting back to work and getting paid. I have also discovered some lies. Be that as it may, every company (good and bad) I have ever worked for has lied to me. No doubt all of you have been lied to also. It is a sad part of the business.
I agree we went out on a limb taking this job. When the bills need to be paid you take chances you would not normally take. Does this make me stupid? If so, then I am proud to join a long line of very talented stupid crewmembers. Those of you whom were not part of this fiasco have no idea what really went on. I was in OUA during the entire ruckus in Jeddah and can not comment on that situation too much. I do know one thing about it, the two primary adversaries, both are very bull-headed. There was bound to be a confrontation. I had many e-mails from both cockpit and cabin crew in Jeddah about the situation. I guess the real truth is in the eye of the beholder, because most of the time the stories did not jive. By the way, no one was held against their will ANYWHERE. We were all free to leave at any time. In Jeddah, the passports were being held by the Saudi immigration, this is normal for the hadj. To leave, you simply need to get a ticket and request your passports (well, maybe a little more complicated than that). Yes there is a fine if you have stayed longer than you are supposed to (if you have not given a good reason). In this case, no airplane is a good reason.
As for the crew in OUA, we laughed and drank beer most of the time. We charged all our meals to the company, which they agreed to pay. We were told that there was a (mysterious) investor on his way to OUA with some money to pay us and bail us out. It got to be a bit of a joke when day after day he never showed up. When we got tired of waiting, (the cockpit crew) we bought our own tickets home. Northeast has promised to reimburse us that cost. I believe they will if they can. We paid each of the cabin crew $100.00 out of the remaining captains slush fund before we left. The cabin crew is now home. They would have been home 2 weeks earlier if not for the war which caused cancelled flights to the middle east.
As B767Longhaul has noted in one of his posts, that mysterious investor has come through and hopefully the aircraft will be released soon. The Flight Mechanic/Owner is still in OUA working out the details. I spoke to him today. There is much, much more to this story than most of you will never know. All in all, I do not believe Northeast are SHYSTERS. They have their problems, but I think they will hold true to their word and pay us all (even DD's friend).
If I'm wrong, I'm an idiot and deserve everything I get!